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Yeah, the take on Bane in B+R was totally insane. I mean, as bad as the movie was, and for as little good as it did, the depictions of Freeze and Ivy were pretty faithful. Whereas Bane, who iirc at the time was still in the running as Batman's greatest enemy, was turned into a ridiculous, poorly-SFXed henchman.

On the plus side, this means that Bane could be more readily utilized in a future film without the taint of B+R, unlike Ivy or Freeze. (Not that I think Nolan, at least, would deign to use Ivy or Freeze anyway, for reasons given above.)

^ Well Neeson was basically repeating his supporting roles in Kingdom of Heaven and Gangs of New York, only in Batman Begins he got to return for the third act.

And, to some extent, his role in Phantom Menace. He's basically turned into Sean Connery over the last decade, playing all those mentor roles Connery did in the 1980s and 1990s. I think in BB, the idea in his casting was to subvert his association with that sort of role. Which would explain why they were also after Mortensen, after he played Aragorn (any relation?).

I remember when the trades formally announced that Liam Neeson would be starring in Batman Begins... they announced him as Ra's al Ghul. Then, not even a day later, the trades (I think it was Variety or the Hollywood Reporter) corrected themselves and said Neeson was actually playing Ducard, much to the chagrin of fans everywhere.

Of course, this led to speculation that Neeson could actually be Ra's and that his Ducard persona was only a decoy, essentially ruining the "twist" of the film. It didn't quite matter, though, since the script for the film leaked anyway and any sort of secrecy that Nolan and Goyer were planning went right out of the window. I just found it funny how the casting process essentially spoiled the third act of the movie.

^ Yes, but they did save it a bit by casting a high-ish profile actor in Ken Wanatabe (who had just been Oscar nominated for The Last Samurai) as 'Ra's.' Cue lots of wailing fanboys, suddenly distracted by Ra's becoming Asian, rather than Arabic. Had they cast someone less well-known than Ken, the cat would truly have been well out of the bag.

Yeah. I remember a lot of complaining when Ken Watanabe was cast. I was kind of surprised he took the part, because it was so small, but it ended up working out well for him: Batman Begins was a hit, and his status was boosted (more people knew about him) and Nolan eventually ended up working with him again in a much larger part for Inception.

It's actually kind of funny, because Nolan re-hired two of the villains of Begins, decoy Ra's (Watanabe) and the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and in Begins they didn't have any scenes together, but they did in Inception. Plus, Tom Hardy is playing a villain in The Dark Knight Rises -- Nolan definitely has a penchant for re-using actors in his movies, especially those that play the villain.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that starring as General Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai (and picking up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for it) did a lot more to boost Watanabe's status in North America than a four-minute part in Batman Begins.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that starring as General Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and as Katsumoto in The Last Samurai (and picking up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for it) did a lot more to boost Watanabe's status in North America than a four-minute part in Batman Begins.

I meant after The Last Samurai. Not many people saw Letters from Iwo Jima, but a lot of people saw Batman Begins. Get what I'm saying?

I must have missed the bit where Watanabe does anything in Batman Begins.

More likely then 'his stature was raised' via the movie it's probable that Nolan just liked working wih the guy on one pic and roped him in to another.

I fully realize Nolan enjoyed working with Watanabe and re-hired him for Inception because he enjoys him as an actor. I was saying that despite Watanabe's small performance in Batman Begins at the very least it boosted his popularity thanks to appearing in a very successful blockbuster.

I have to admit that I was one of those fooled by the "deception" until I read the script and learned of the twist. He may have had minimal impact but he still had an impact in the film. That elaborate costume was pretty damn cool.